Kristan Higgins’ My One and Only is happily ensconced on the NYT and USA Today bestseller lists, and I have been offered a fun little collection to celebrate.
If you leave a comment and tell me the most essential item in your car’s glove compartment, you’re entered to win. Easy! And what could you win? A prize pack that includes a really cute travel bag, some travel essentials like lip gloss, mascara, and bronzer, and a copy of the book.
My glove compartment essentials are kinda boring: a mylar reflective heat blanket, bottles of water, hand wipes, about 14,000 pens that don’t work, and a really bad GPS. If you know which one is my car and want to steal it, go for it – it gives really crap directions, like getting off the highway and getting on one of those roads with stoplights and big box stores every 200 ft. I think it would take me to Manhattan by way of Texas if I allowed it. I do have a candy stash, though. No touching!
Standard disclaimers apply: I am not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Hang up and drive. Texting while operating a moving vehicle is punishable by a lot of hateration and some glaring, and possibly a heaping ticket if the cops spot you. No hateration in this dancery. You’ve got 24 hours. This contest is open to residents of the US and Canada.
So, what’s in your
wallet
glove compartment that absolutely must stay there? Got a dashboard mascot that is required in your car? Anyone have a mini-library in their car, too, or are you one of those people who can’t read in a moving vehicle?
In my glove box: car user guide, a ZipLoc bag full of quarters in case I need to feed a parking meter, my SO’s cell phone charger, a black Sharpie, tire pressure gauge, BandAids, Ace Bandage, and a Leatherman. Most essential item: a pair of back up eyeglasses.
I’m so myopic that I carry backups everywhere I go.
Plastic bags, napkins, ziplocks, CDs for my baby…
In mine: owners manual with identifying info ripped off, ballpoint pen, gloves, hat (also convenient for wiping off windshield), contact lens solution bottle full of rubbing alcohol (cheap de-icer), and a survival kit in a sardine can (got it from thinkgeek)! It’s full of useful stuff like water purify tabs, Mylar blanket, matches, whistle, etc.
Napkins. Gum. Peppermints. Phone charger. And the pennies from McDonald’s. A drink is $1.08, and I always hand them $1.10. Eventually, I have 8 pennies.
country78 I live in the country, and the wind is blowing 78 mph it seems!!
Cds, Napkins, bags
We keep one of those tools to cut the seat belt in case of an accident. Pretty important, I think.
Tons of CDS, a flashlight, and my phone charger
Hand sanitizer! I really don’t have too much in my glove box….
insurance card
registration card
receipts from car repairs/maint
roll of toilet paper (you never know when you might need that)
I… don’t have a car. No need for one, really. The only thing I *have* to carry with me if I’m planning on going somewhere is my bus pass!
Ooh, me me me!
My essential items are the travel packs of tissues my mom always includes in my Christmas stocking (yes, I’m thirty-one—what of it?) If I run out of those I’ll be reduced to substituting the second most important item, the car’s registration.
The real answer is probably my tire gauge but since i have no idea how to use it that doesn’t count. Old CDs I have totally forgotten about? Not as good as the 6 year out of date diapers in the under seat drawer!
Napkins. The other stuff in there is useful, like the registration and the proof of insurance, but it’s the napkins that are really essential.
At the moment the most essential thing in my glove compartment is my car’s owner’s manual – I just bought the car last month (used) and have been referencing it a lot. Just imagine how pleased when I discovered it had a 6 disk CD changer in the trunk! The manual helped me figure out how to use it 🙂
I have tissues too but they are on my console where I can get to them easily!
My car registration. Because otherwise I’ll be in trouble next time I get a ticket.
The most essential item in my glovebox is actually baby wipes. I’m childless, but baby wipes are amazing.
They’re great for cleaning grease and dirt off your hands after you change a spare tire. (We can all do that, right ladies?)
You can use them to gently take off your mascara after a night out, so you at least look like you’ve been home when you wander into the office wearing the same shirt you wore yesterday.
You can use them to rub out mustard stains from that sandwich you grabbed instead of a real lunch, they’re almost as effective as a Tide pen!
They even make a nice pick-me-up on a hot day, just wipe off the back of your neck, your cleavage, and all the oily areas of your face. They’ll give you a dewy glow!
I always know I can find Tums in my glove box. Napkins too. Oh and hair bands. Essential items.
Napkins, mostly from Starbucks, because I’m always spilling stuff or having to wipe water off my side mirrors on wet mornings. Also hand sanitizer (the scented stuff from bath and body works), wet wipes, insurance cards and other must-have car paperwork, like the manual to the car which I have actually used a couple times. And my Tom-Tom. I also keep a water bottle in my car.
Definitely hand sanitizer. Not just good for getting yuck off the hands—on a hot day, it can really help cool you down in a pinch! (I have no air conditioning!)
Napkins and GPS
We keep just registration and the drivers manual. (You never know when the local cops will pull you over.) Maybe a map or a change purse or first aid kit. But the car holds more.
@Higgins you are kidding about the gun?
I carry a communion kit. As in Holy Communion. I guess here is where I out myself on SBTB and admit that sometimes this girl needs to read about a little more lovin’ than Jesus offers- if you know what I’m sayin’. Anyway, I have a little kit in my glovebox with a few wafers, a little flask of wine and little cups. I call it the “Jesus Roadshow”.Sometimes I have to visit people on short notice and I don’t have time to go back to my office to pick up a kit, so I need to have one with me. I must note that it is pretty cheap wine because I need the higher alcohol content to keep from freezing in the winter here. I can send pictures if you need/want them.
I also have a Bible, spare air fresheners, graham crackers (toddler), poop bags (dog and toddler) and the paperwork for the car.
And a spare house key.
And matches.
It’s stuffed full of paper napkins, a sudoku book, and a pen.
My NYRA cash card for the track; a wine opener; baby wipes; flashlight.
a gigantic utility knife. ( think crocodile dundee “thats not a knife, this is a knife” type thing ) comes in handy when i need to cut something. or when i’m driving home alone at about 3 in the morning.
The most important thing in my glove box are my CD’s [Bon Jovi yay!!] and my sunglasses so I can look cool,at least in my eyes, while listening to them!! lol
I have a flashlight, chap stick, some cookies, and a paperback book (I can’t remember what book, it’s something I’ve read before and stuck in there for emergency situations). Plus, all the car related stuff that my husband says MUST STAY IN CAR AT ALL TIMES!
A tissue box! When you gotta sneeze, you gotta sneeze!
Napkins
registration
insurance cards
old insurance cards
even older insurance cards
a pencil and I have no idea why
my car’s instructions, because I couldn’t possibly drive without it
6 Beatles Cds
My music is downloaded to the system but I still have some cd’s. I always keep a book of short stories besides traveling with the ereader. Lots of sunglasses- I always have to have extras. Can’t stand to have anything on the dashboard but I do have my car dock for my droid on there. Old insurance cards because I can never remember to put the new ones in.
I have a big jeep cause I have to have lots of crap in it. And a place to hide shopping bags.
I guess the most important thing is my legal documents folder with car registration and proof of insurance for obvious reasons. Second most important, though, is my cell phone charger.
The most essential items in my glove box are the spare Reader’s Digest to stave off absolute boredom, in case of emergency, and a spare tampon. I’d be useless with anything actually related to car maintenance and repair…it’s why I have roadside assistance. But God forbid I be without something to read!
Besides the owner’s manual, a flashlight and a tire gauge the only other thing in my glove box is a window scraper – which is the only essential thing in there. It gets used, a lot – including yesterday when we received a generous 8 inches of snow.
Baby oil,
garbage bag,
a .45 magnum,
and a fifth of tequila.
Duh! What every good Texan has. *grin*
Hmm, my glove compartment is rather full.
Insurance and registration (current and some former years)
Gas mileage booklet (and doesn’t that make me cry considering it is from when I first bought my 2004 vehicle)
pens and pencils
casino player cards
coupons & ads for nearby bookstores
My most precious glove compartment items are my VW owner’s manual, and my glittery backup sunglasses. I must have backup sunglasses at all times!
The glove box in my Mazda 3 is ginormous, so it’s a treasure trove of crap in there. The most essential item, though, is my EXTREMELY large owl glasses from the 1990’s. If something were to ever happen to the pair I’m wearing, they would be priceless!
My little radio transmitter doohickey for my iPod so I can use it in the car (must have my music!) plus backup sunglasses.
Car manual plus wet wipes the next two things I always have.
car regs; manual, map, calomine lotion – for bug bites obtained while watching baseball games, spare pair of contacts for my son – just in case something happens to get in his eye while he was on the field. Of course he’s away at college, haven’t seen a ‘kid’ baseball game in three years. But I am prepared!
My glove compartment essentials are proof of insurance and registration. Dull but necessary!